Floating body game apparatus



Feb. 8, 1949. R. D. YOUNG 2,461,461

FLOATING BODY GAME APPARATUS Filed Sept. 18, 1945 v J F5912 Patented Feb. 8, 1949 UNITED STATES. PATENT ori ce .FLQAT NGsensitize-Armen ans Application September 18, 194 5 ,'=S ,erial N o.1617.986

' In Great Britain October .2 5, 1944 5 Claims. (01. 27 3- 138).

floating "bodies ad pted to adhere to the first by surface tension. I provide a secondary floating bqdyfyvhich may have an upstanding portion at one 'end for accentuating the action of surface tension thereon.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention as applied to games, wherein:

Fig. l is a plan of a tray adapted for playing one form of game.

'Ii ig, 2 is a plan of one form of tug for use in connection with the tray illustrated in Fig, l.

3 is a side elevation of such a tug.

'FignA is .a plan of one form of barge for use in connection with the tray illustrated in Fig. 1, and

5 is a side elevation of such a barge.

Fig. dis 'a side elevation of a boat-hook for use in connection with the game illustrated in Figs.

Fig. "7 is a plan of a tray .adapted for playing a modified form of game.

Fig. 8 is a plan of a boat for use in connection with the bcardillustrated in Fig. 7.

'Ffig, 91is.a side elevation of .such a boat.

Fig. 110 is a plan of ,afish for use in -connection with the tray illustrated in Fig. 7.

Fig. llis a side elevation of such a fish.

Fig, l 2is a plan of a modified form of tray.

InFigs. 1' to 6 I provide a water-tight tray (1 with vertical sides b'and'in this tray I provide two pairs, each of two movable walls 0 made of fiat sided pieces and pivoted at d and a centre wall w.- Izalso provide a thin fiat member'e of ce1lu-- loid to represent a tug. The hull of the tug is flat ands-is pierced through the bow. at f, and is provided with lateral projections 9' to represent paddles...-,a.nd with a vertical stern and an upright sternfpost h -i'n the middleof the stern. I .alsoy b ook o o ma o wire withta ihandle P at one'end, and a lateral .bend q'at the-other end, the wire being of such diameter asjust' to pass through the hole f in the hull o fthe tug.

In playing the game with two'comp'etitor's a layer of water is placed in the tray a. The walls c are also placed parallel inthe trayawithreference to the related centre wall w-tb foim the banks of the canal at such a distance apart that the tug e will just pass between the-wallscand '21) with a little room on each side. The tuge and the barges i are placed in the water in the;

tray. The. skipper of they tug e then passes his rod 0 through the bow of the-tug ,e and manipu- .lates the tug by bringing it lust closeenoughto aibargez' {for the suriace'tensioncreated between the tug 'e and'the'water and the barg'ei and the waterto attract the barge'z to the tug e'sothat' the stemm of the barge makes contact with'the stern post h of the tug. The force which urges the tug e and the barge'i together is-the surfacetension' existing between the upright stern post:

h on the tug e and the water on the one hand and the upright stem m of the-barge-i orrthfeother. hand. When the stern ofthe tug is brought suiiicien-tly hearts the bow of the barge; the-bargeisatt-ra-cted towards the tug. When the skipperof each tug has gotten one barge in toiv -his j-ob is then to attach the second barge'to the first and.- this he has to do by so'manipulating the tng-anet the barge it is towing towards the stem of ah other barge. The water causes this =-free.- barge to move towards the barge already in tow so than the stem on the free bargezis-attracted and makes contact with the stern post ofthe barge tow.

The skipper then'hasto get the remainingv barge or ibarges int-ow. 'He then must, by means of the rod, draw his barges between the ea-hal banks formed by either :of the two walls 0 and the centre iwall without the tug losing any of -its barges. It will be found that the nam'owerthe" channel the greater .the surface tension which tends to separatev the :tug and the iba-rges. Byv

graduating the distance :from one to-another-of r I .themembers .c and -wform.ing the banks-of. the

canal, the strength .of-cthe surface tension/can be made .to vary at zdifierentxpartsof :thcxzaneil and this will introduce :further diflicultiesmrjiubther ease in setting .the :tugto towzits barges; .thrqughthacthfi without loss. Theskipperawhe etsallhisbargeS-home first wins.

. a-mpd fi v orm o arran ement gth de iqfi 5 a be u e w a min ar an ement. so ample the wi evwall members may hen mam achibe pivoted a.baut, ibhe ,.eentral point-. 1;

to traverse the length of the channel under the influence of the surface tension, the direction of travel being from the narrow portion of the channel towards the broader one. At the-ends of its path or at intermediate places the floating member may be caused to operate switches or to act as an electric conductor to turn on lights and this arrangement may be used for advertising devices or for other arrangements in which timing is desired.

The grid formation of wire wall'menibers reduces disturbance of the water surface when moving the walls.

The surface tension is also reduced by companion with a solid wall, but this has no serious effect.

As illustrated in Figs. 7 to 11 I provide a metal watertight tray a of square shapeand with upright edges or walls b. Within the tray arcuate walls 0' are arranged of the same height as the One end of each arcuate wall 0' is spaced all wall 0' and the adjacent wall of the tray, thus harbours e" are formed. The passages e are arranged towards the right hand ends of the arcuate wall as viewed from the latters convex side. I also provide four sets of playing pieces, each set being coloured differently and comprising one boat f and four fish g. All the pieces are made of wood or other material such as celluloid which will float upon water.

The piece I formed as the boat comprising a flat hull h with a sharp bow, a straight stern, and an upright stern post 2" in the centre of the stern. The width of the hull h is such that it will just pass through the opening of a harbour 6" with a very small allowance of room on each side. A vertical hole 7" through the hull h is formed at the bow. In the centre of the boat 1" is arranged an upright fiat member k along the longitudinal axis of the boat to represent a sail. The first g are each formed of a fiat member with a forked tail Z and an upwardly projecting nose m at the head. Four boat hooks or rods as illustrated in Fig. 6 are provided, one for each set of pieces.

In playing the game the tray a is filled with a shallow layer of water and each player goes fishing in turn. That is to say the player places his boat 1" in one of the harbours e" formed between the arcuate wall and the sides of the tray and also places his four fish g in the centre of the water with the flat side on the water and the nose m projecting upwards from the water; The player then'takes his rod 0 and 4 inserts the downturned end of the rod through the hole 9" in the boat. He then conducts the boat f by means of the rod to the centre of the pond formed in the tray. He moves his boat so that the stern post 1' lies just so near the upright nose m of an adjacent fish g that the surface tension of the water acting on the stern post 2" and on the upright nose m of the fish allows the fish to be drawn towards the boat until the stern post i of the boat and the nose m of the fish are in conjunction. The player then by means of his rod conducts back through the narrow channel into the harbour the boat with the fish attached to it by surface tension.

Fig. 12 illustrates a board in which the game is played in a similar way to that described with reference to Figs. '7 to 11.

The skill consists in returning the boat through the channel without the fish becoming detached from the stern of the boat. It will be found that when the boat is fishing a sufficient surface ten;- sion arises to cause the fish to be attracted to wards the adjacent heat. When the boat and the fish are beingdrawn through the harbour channel an opposing surface tension will be created by the narrow opening through which the boat is passing, which surface tension will tend to separate the boat and its following fish. When the player has succeeded in getting one flshthrough the harbour he then goes fishing for another and so on.

Boats and fish are suitably coloureddifferent colour in the four different cases and the players draw lots as to the order in which they shall fish.

if desired all the fish may be placed in the pond at one time and the fishermen may take it in turn to go fishing. V i 'g L. t It will be evident that details of construction may be varied in many wayswithout departing from the scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. apparatus comprising a. vessel con- 2. Game apparatus comprising a vessel containing liquid, a. floating body of thin flat form with means at one end to be engaged by a manually actuated boat-hook or the like enabling the body to be drawn across the liquid, and having an upstanding portion at the other end of the floating body sufficiently high to accentuate surface tension at said other end to attract a second floating body, and a secondary floating body for adherence to the first by surface tension, the sec-- ondary body having an upstanding portion at one accentuate surface tension at the latter surface with such liquid to attract a second floating body, and one or more secondary floating bodies'for effect of surface tension of floating bodies passing therethrough at different points along the channel.

RALPH DAWSON YOUNG.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Great Britain Mar. 22, 1935 Number ate- 

